


Looking Glass

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Conflicted Kylo Ren, Fix-It, Gen, Good Uncle Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Related, Luke Skywalker Is Not an Asshole, Rey Solo, Snoke Being a Dick, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Fix-It, minor Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-27 03:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20753819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: What if Rey saw something completely different in the Mirror Cave?





	1. What Was Found

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Call this yet another story that got too big for a one-shot.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A change in the Mirror Cave changes everything.

“I want to see my parents — please.”

The mirror cleared, and despite herself, Rey couldn’t help but feel at least a prickle of excitement even as she looked in the glass — the too-smooth glass, the glossy texture. It was almost like she could see distant figures approaching from some sort of invisible horizon, getting closer, closer...

Rey’s breathing hitched. There was something about those figures that looked familiar. No, she realized, they were familiar. One was a short woman with her hair in a braided bun, the other, a man in a dark jacket. She recognized them. She knew them. Han and Leia.

“No.” Rey almost backed into the water. Almost slipped. It was mostly thanks to luck that she managed to right herself. “It can’t be — I would have remembered — ”

A fragment of her vision from not so long ago entered her mind. That ship — it looked almost luxury in nature. Nothing that could be an ordinary smuggling ship. Someone had good as stolen her from her home. Wherever home was.

***

The look on Luke’s face when she told him — it was almost akin to a man that had found something that had been lost to him. Something that he had thought lost. And perhaps a hint of something else — honest to stars regret for how he had treated her.

“I nearly had another Ben Solo on my hands,” he said softly.

Rey shook her head. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Luke...Uncle...did you really try to kill Ben Solo? I...heard.”

“You mean he told you,” Luke said. “I’m not ignorant, Rey.”

Rey nodded.

Luke sighed. “It’s something I regret every day,” he said. “I saw...darkness in him. It was just moments in his training, but it stood out enough. It was terrifying — seeing him all but spiral and feeling powerless to do anything. And when I saw that _thing_ that lived inside his head...”

“What kind of thing?” Rey said.

“Snoke.” Luke said the name simply, but nonetheless, Rey could tell that it still weighed on him. Too heavily, she thought. How long had Snoke been there?

The very idea of some monster living inside her brother’s head...well, it was too awful to comprehend. As was the idea of her sharing blood with a monster. 

Except...was a monster really a monster in that moment? Had Ren — Ben — really been evil all along, or had Snoke all but driven him there? Or was the answer somewhere in the middle?

”He could have gone to you,” she said. “Surely you would have done something about it.”

Luke sighed. “I don’t know. It doesn’t...justify what I tried to do to him, of course. What I thought of doing to him. There was this moment, just a moment, like I thought that I could stop this future I thought would come to pass. Like I could stop him from hurting his own parents...”

”You saw him killing...Father?” It felt odd calling Han that, and yet completely right. 

“I saw many things. Too many possibilities. It was like that...thing in his head was taunting me with them. I stopped myself in time, because I couldn’t do it.” A beat. “I couldn’t kill Ben Solo. He woke up — he must have felt something. And from there, I...good as killed everyone there. I don’t know why he did it. He could have at least punished me instead of my own students.”

Luke sounded so vulnerable in that moment. Rey bit her lip; somehow, the idea that one of her family members could be so vulnerable in that moment was something she couldn’t comprehend. 

“You didn’t deserve this,” she said. “Really.” 

Luke sighed. “Thank you, Rey. I was actually thinking...I’ve stayed on this island too long. I only don’t know how to get off it...”

Rey raised an eyebrow. “The Falcon doesn’t count?”

Silence. Then Luke spoke. “You...are correct. I didn’t quite think about it.”

Rey smiled. “Everyone has things they don’t consider, don’t they?”

”Indeed.” Luke nodded as he spoke. “We’re leaving. And for the Force’s sake, Rey; change out of those wet clothes before you get sick.”

Rey laughed. It was something so unexpected, someone actually showing concern for her well-being. Luke didn’t laugh, but Rey thought that she saw a trace of a smirk tugging at his lips. For a moment, she could see traces of the young Rebel hero he had been. 

“That’s the plan,” she said. 

***

Boarding the Millennium Falcon was interesting. Luke looked around in disbelief at the sheer amount of Porgs nestled around the Falcon, scoffing in amusement. “I leave the Falcon for a while and this happens?”

”I couldn’t refuse Chewie,” Rey said. 

Luke snorted, but it was affectionate. “Of course this was his idea.” Then, “Can you pilot?”

”I’ve had some experience,” Rey said. 

“Good. And assuming we can get the stanging Porgs off the dashboard...”

”Language, Uncle,” Rey teased. 

Luke sighed. "I can’t believe my own niece is correcting my language...”

He wasn’t laughing yet. He would, though. Rey would probably find some way to get a laugh out of him, somehow. At least seeing him actually smiling, actually making some jokes, was enough. He was healing, and Rey was grateful for that. It would take a while before he fully healed, assuming they all survived, but that was the wonderful thing: it had begun. 


	2. And Darkness Meets Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snoke speaks with Kylo Ren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Supreme Leader Snoke was not going to deny anything — even at the feeling of a familiar presence coming back into the galaxy, he was very much afraid. 

Fear was not an emotion that he was used to feeling, truthfully. Fear was an emotion that he was used to striking in others, especially when they realized that Snoke wasn’t as old and frail as he appeared. The look on others’ faces when they realized they’d underestimated him was far too sweet. 

Now...now he wondered, even in his fear of Skywalker, if he had drastically underestimated the man. Even to this point. 

He doubted that he was looking forward to summoning Kylo Ren to his throne room. The young Knight of Ren...Snoke had once thought that he was one of the First Order’s last hopes. He’d said to Ren that snuffing out hope was what Ren was supposed to do. What Snoke hadn’t said was that, really, it was more than just demoralizing the enemy — it was making sure that disorder didn’t still thrive throughout the galaxy. The Light and the Dark...he had thought that Ren would exemplify them, but the man — assuming he wasn’t just a little boy in man’s skin. Dark Siders were typically made of tougher stock, actually — was too absorbed in his inner conflict and self-pity. Instead of fighting the girl, he allowed his own self-pitying weakness to take the wheel, and so he’d been defeated. 

Still, he did, and he could swear that there was something...darker brewing behind Ren’s mind. Maybe the young man was getting over his own childish indecisiveness, his self-pity and weakness. It was a long time coming, Snoke supposed. 

“I’m afraid that you may still be useful,” Snoke said. “For the time being. Though after your failure on the Starkiller planet, I doubt you can hit a duracrete wall. Or beat a one-legged tach.”

”I was...wounded...”

Snoke scoffed. “A warrior would have learned to channel that pain. Darth Sion took more punishment than that — by the Force, he took more punishment than merely a facial slash. And your grandfather...ah, touched a nerve, didn’t I?”

”Don’t you dare,” Kylo seethed. “Don’t you even...presume to compare me to Grandfather.”

”Of course not,” Snoke said. “If Vader were by my side, the galaxy would be trembling in fear...as opposed to hysterical laughter.”

”Is that all, Supreme Leader?” Kylo said, and Snoke could feel, somewhere, the anger rising...and not the anger that would inevitably give way to a childish tantrum.

”I believe,” Snoke said, “You may have a chance to prove yourself. Prove that you’re more than just a sniveling brat I misguidedly placed my hopes in.”

The anger faded away momentarily, just to be replaced with interest. “Name it.”

”Skywalker’s come home. As has the girl.”

He could swear that his apprentice’s breathing actually hitched. 

“Skywalker?” Kylo’s voice was quiet, but Snoke could feel the fury that threatened to be released. 

“Yes,” Snoke said. "He and the girl are heading back to the Resistance fleet. Now...now we have the chance to annihilate them.” A beat. “Lovely word, ‘annihilate’.”

Now, Kylo actually did look hesitant. Snoke knew why. 

“You still cling to weakness,” Snoke sneered. "Hesitant to kill your mother...or the man you still love. There’s still room in your heart, where nothing else lives? Pathetic.”

Ren rose. 

Blasting him back with Force Lightning was almost comical in how easy it was — it seemed that Ren couldn’t even face him like a true apprentice. 

“You’re going to kill the Resistance fleet, or come back a failure,” Snoke said. “Now get out of my sight.”

Ren did, though not before throwing Snoke a look of the utmost ugly hate before turning and leaving. The Praetorian Guards relaxed their stances — Kylo Ren was, truly, nothing to fear. 

Of course, perhaps Ren would stop wallowing in self-pity and actually prove himself as a warrior of the First Order. Perhaps. Or perhaps, just like Snoke’s past apprentices, he would leave Snoke with nothing. 


End file.
